Re: Last Call: <draft-farrell-ft-03.txt> (A Fast-Track way to RFC with Running Code) to Experimental RFC

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Full agreement with Stephan.

Lars

On Jan 11, 2013, at 22:02, Stephan Wenger <stewe@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> Sorry for replying to this "advise to secretariat" thread and not to the
> ietf-announce thread--I'm not subscribed to ietf-announce.
> I have three comments, and regret that I have not followed all of the
> discussions regarding this draft before, so please advise if those
> comments have already been raised and/or resolved.
> 
> 
> First, I'm glad that the direct preferences of open source implementations
> over implementations compliant with other business models are mostly gone.
> Still, there is one reference that worries me, and that is the reference
> to GPLv3 code as an "extreme" in section 2.1.  Yes, the GPL (and similar
> copyleft licenses) is an extreme, at least in terms of open source
> licensing models.  However, it is not an extreme of openness or
> accessibility of the source code for review by WG chair, AD, and
> community.  I would hope that we are all aware that many (most?)
> commercial software developers, by company policy or common sense, avoid
> looking at GPL-ed code, out of fear of contamination of their own closed
> source code.  GPL-ed code  is, therefore, inaccessible for verification by
> a large part of the IETF community, and does not serve as a good example
> for "openness", which is how I interpret the spectrum laid out in section
> 2.1.  A better example would be source code that is almost universally
> accessible.  The extreme here would be source code in the public domain.
> Somewhat less convincing but perhaps a bit more realistically, source code
> under a BSD-style license like the one the IETF Trust is using.
> 
> Second, the draft suggest that the existence of an implementation of the
> specification should serve as a shortcut towards RFC, presumably because
> such an implementation speak favorably to the implementability of the
> specification.  That, however, is not universally true.  Specifically, if
> implementer and spec writer are the same person (or part of the same
> team), it is quite likely that the spec takes certain assumptions made by
> the implementers for granted, and does not document it.  That would be a
> bad spec, accessible implementation or not.  The solution to this issue is
> IMO not, as the draft appears to be to suggest, to put burden on WG chairs
> and ADs to ensure that the spec and the implementation match.  Both WG
> chairs and ADs have enough to do, and the incentive for rubber-stamping is
> quite high.  A more sensible solution may be to require that the
> implementer is unaffiliated with the spec author; in other words, the
> implementation is derived from the spec + IETF discussion context.
> 
> A third comment would be that, if you interpret the draft strictly, it is
> highly unlikely that the experiment would ever be exercised, as the
> implementation needs to "match" the draft to be advanced, and that would
> mean that the implementation has to follow in lockstep with the draft
> development up until the final version.  With respect to the core subject
> matter of a draft, that may be fine.  However, many of the final edits in
> a draft come as input from IETF wide community review; things like
> security, congestion control, and the like.  Those are often trivial to
> write down, but can have a major implementation impact.  To cure this, it
> would IMO be acceptable if the implementation would be required to match
> the latest or a reasonably young, i.e. a few months old version of the
> draft.
> 
> Please consider this.
> Thanks,
> Stephan
> 
> 
> On 1.11.2013 08:21 , "Adrian Farrel" <adrian@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
>> Hi Alexa,
>> 
>> Please be aware of this document that has just entered a four-week IETF
>> last
>> call. The document describes a proposed IETF process experiment under the
>> rules
>> of RFC 3933.
>> 
>> The proposed experiment calls on the IETF Secretariat to take specific
>> actions
>> under certain circumstances in corner cases of the experiment. Could you
>> please
>> have someone in the Secretariat look at the draft and comment on the
>> practicalities of the actions. Note that, at this stage, no changes to
>> the tools
>> are proposed so any actions would require manual intervention (if the
>> experiment
>> were successful and resulted in permanent changes to IETF process we
>> might make
>> changes to the tools at some future time).
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Adrian
>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: ietf-announce-bounces@xxxxxxxx [mailto:ietf-announce-
>>> bounces@xxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of The IESG
>>> Sent: 11 January 2013 15:15
>>> To: IETF-Announce
>>> Subject: Last Call: <draft-farrell-ft-03.txt> (A Fast-Track way to RFC
>>> with
>> Running
>>> Code) to Experimental RFC
>>> 
>>> 
>>> The IESG has received a request from an individual submitter to consider
>>> the following document:
>>> - 'A Fast-Track way to RFC with Running Code'
>>>  <draft-farrell-ft-03.txt> as Experimental RFC
>>> 
>>> The IESG plans to make a decision in the next few weeks, and solicits
>>> final comments on this action. Please send substantive comments to the
>>> ietf@xxxxxxxx mailing lists by 2013-02-08. Exceptionally, comments may
>>> be
>>> sent to iesg@xxxxxxxx instead. In either case, please retain the
>>> beginning of the Subject line to allow automated sorting.
>>> 
>>> Abstract
>>> 
>>>   This memo describes an optional, fast-track way to progress a working
>>>   group document to IESG review.  It is provided as a process
>>>   experiment as defined in RFC 3933 for use when working group chairs
>>>   believe that there is running code that implements a working group
>>>   Internet-Draft.  The motivation is to have the IETF process
>>>   explicitly consider running code, consistent with the IETF's overall
>>>   philosophy of running code and rough consensus.
>>> 
>>>   In this process all of working group last call, IETF last call, and
>>>   Area Director review are carried out in the same two week period.
>>>   Only comments that meet IESG Discuss criteria need to be addressed
>>>   during this stage, and authors are required to make any changes
>>>   within two weeks.
>>> 
>>>   This experiment will run for one year.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> The file can be obtained via
>>> http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-farrell-ft/
>>> 
>>> IESG discussion can be tracked via
>>> http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-farrell-ft/ballot/
>>> 
>>> No IPR declarations have been submitted directly on this I-D.
>> 
>> 
> 
> 




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